Rand Paul to GOP: Change or Put Dems in White House for Next Generation (Postscript)

Since Rand Paul said it, and he might run for President, some will say he is being self-serving. But just because a man makes a living as a mathematician doesn’t mean he is untrustworthy when he tells you that two and two make four. And, when Rand Paul tells you that you the Republican Party is in danger of putting no one but Democrats in the White House for the next generation, that should be something you already know. We have seen them do it for eight years so far.

“I think Republicans will not win again in my lifetime for the presidency unless they become a new GOP, a new Republican Party,” he said, during an interview with Glenn Beck on TheBlaze that aired on Thursday, Politico reported. “And it has to be a transformation, not a little tweaking at the edges.”

In fact, the GOP needs a complete overhaul that includes a “better message” that resonates with a wide population, “in a way they can understand it,” he said, on the show. One example: Rather than talking taxes, talk civil liberties, he suggested.

“Republicans haven’t gone to African-Americans or to Hispanics and said, ‘You know what? The war on drugs, Big Government, has had a racial outcome. It’s disproportionately affected the poor and the black and the brown,’” he said, on TheBlaze.

Mr. Paul, long-rumored to make a run for the 2016 White House, said he’s not yet decided — but that nobody from his party would hold the nation’s highest seat without radical change.

“There is a struggle going on within the Republican Party,” he said, Politico reported. “It’s not new and I’m not ashamed of it. I’m proud of the fact that there is a struggle. And I will struggle to make the Republican Party a different party, a bigger party, a more diverse party and a party that can win national elections again.”

I suppose some traditional conservatives will not like this. But even if I didn’t hate the Federal drug war and the incredible prison rates as much as I do, I would love a chance to derail the Democrat “civil rights” reputation which is currently based on nothing more than the fiction of “homosexual marriage.” Putting people in prison is far more important than refusing same-sex partners a marriage license. Furthermore, breaking up the Democrat Party’s lock on growing minorities is obviously a requirement for any kind of long term popular hegemony along the lines of what Reagan gave us.

I admit I’m not alwaysa fan of Rand. He sometimes takes positions that I assume he finds attractive because he wants to be President. (His condemnation of Edward Snowden comes to mind.) But his work on the NSA, on drones, and his strong words about our prison system are wonderful. I hope Republicans listen to him.

Postscript: I notice from some early comments that I need to add information about Rand Paul’s argument. As he makes very clear in this video, Paul believes that drug use by minorities and the rest of the population is about the same. The arrest and prison rates are not. So he is not saying that laws should be canceled because minorities break them. He’s saying prisons sentences should be given out less frequently because poor kids are more likely to get caught and to get jail when they are no worse than your kids. Agree or disagree, but that is his argument. (I noticed in re-viewing the video that Paul actually recommends Kentucky’s “Drug Courts.” Hopefully they work better than the system in Indiana.)